Prevalence of Sleep Deprivation and Relation with Depressive Symptoms among Medical Residents in King Fahd University Hospital, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: Sleep deprivation is common among medical residents of all specialties. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of sleep deprivation and depressive symptoms among medical residents in King Fahd University Hospital (KFUH) in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the association between sleep deprivation, sleepiness and depressive symptoms was examined. Methods: This cross-sectional study took place between February and April 2012 and involved 171 KFUH medical residents of different specialties. Data were collected using a specifically designed questionnaire eliciting demographic information, working hours and number of hours of sleep. In addition, validated Arabic versions of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory-2 (BDI-2) were used. Results: The prevalence of acute sleep deprivation and chronic sleep deprivation among residents in KFUH was 85.9% and 63.2%, respectively. The prevalence of overall sleepiness was 52%; 43.3% reported being excessively sleepy in certain situations while 8.8% reported being excessively sleepy regardless of the situation. Based on the BDI-2, the prevalence of mild, moderate and severe depressive symptoms was 43.3%, 15.2% and 4.7%, respectively. Significant associations were found between sleep deprivation and depressive symptoms; depressive symptoms and sleepiness, and depressive symptoms and being a female resident. Conclusion: The vast majority of medical residents had acute sleep deprivation, with more than half suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. The number of hours and quality of sleep among the residents were strongly associated with depressive symptoms. New regulations are recommended regarding the number of working hours and night duties for medical residents. Further studies should assess these new regulations on a regular basis

Achieving Goals using Reward Shaping and Curriculum Learning

Real-time control for robotics is a popular research area in the reinforcement learning community. Through the use of techniques such as reward shaping, researchers have managed to train online agents across a multitude of domains. Despite these advances, solving goal-oriented tasks still requires complex architectural changes or hard constraints to be placed on the problem. In this article, we solve the problem of stacking multiple cubes by combining curriculum learning, reward shaping, and a high number of efficiently parallelized environments. We introduce two curriculum learning settings that allow us to separate the complex task into sequential sub-goals, hence enabling the learning of a problem that may otherwise be too difficult. We focus on discussing the challenges encountered while implementing them in a goal-conditioned environment. Finally, we extend the best configuration identified on a higher complexity environment with differently shaped objects.Comment: To be published at Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 202

Microstructural and Corrosion Properties of PEO Coated Zinc-Aluminized (ZA) Steel

Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) is a surface treatment, similar to anodizing, that produces thick oxide films on the surface of metals. In the present work, PEO coatings were obtained on zinc-aluminized (ZA) carbon steel using a solution containing sodium silicate and potassium hydroxide as electrolyte, and working with high current densities and short treatment times in Direct Current (DC) mode. The thickness of the coating, as well as the surface morphology, were strongly influenced by the process parameters, with different dissolution grades of the ZA layer depending on the current density and treatment time. A compromise between thickness and porosity of the coating was found with low current density/long treatment time or high current density/short treatment time. The PEO layer was mainly composed of aluminum oxides and silicon compounds. The corrosion resistance increased remarkably in the samples with the PEO coating. These PEO coated samples are suitable for sealing treatments that further increase their corrosion properties or will be also an ideal substrate for commercial painting, assuring improved mechanical adhesion and protection even in the presence of damages

Student’s perceptions and feedback about teaching-learning pharmacology in Nepalgunj Medical College of Chisapani, Nepal

Background: Pharmacology, being both basic and applied science, forms the backbone of rational therapeutics in medical field. Understanding of current perceptions and opinions of medical students is important for the betterment of teaching-learning methodologies in pharmacology subject. This study done with the objective to determine the perception and feedback of teaching learning pharmacology.Methods: Descriptive cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted in Nepalgunj Medical College Chisapani, Banke Nepal, among second year MBBS students in September 2017. A questionnaire distributed in class and then collected. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Results: Total 119 students, 78 male and 41 females participated in this study. The percentage average of agreed responses for 15 questions (58.92±19.53) was significant (p <0.05) when compared with the percentage average of the disagreed (5.42± 5.17). Seventy three (61.3%) students agreed that pharmacology is a favourite subject but the preferences for pharmacology as a subject in post-graduation was low (18.5%). High proportion of students wanted the faculty members to make more use of Audio-Visual aids 93.3%, case based learning 96.6%, more clinical pharmacology, 97.5%, group discussions, 88.2%, integration to clinical sciences 92.4% and 82.4% prefer MCQs to be introduced in the curriculum for effective learning.Conclusions: Introduction of integrated teaching, MCQs, case based, and group based discussion with clinical pharmacology and audio-visual aids was favoured by majority of the students. Regular reviewing perception and feedback of the students help teachers to plan the curriculum and improve the teaching methodologies

A Comparative Study of Perceived Stress among Female Medical and Non-Medical University Students in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate any differences between female undergraduate medical and non-medical students for: 1) prevalence and causes of perceived academic stress, and 2) changes in physical, mental, psychological and emotional health as well as life-style since starting college studies. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Dammam University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in January 2008. All 319 pre-clinical female medical students were included in the study and 297 non-medical students from the College of Applied Studies and Community Services (CASCS) were selected by stratified random sampling. The study instrument was a questionnaire on the “Influence of Studying on Students’ Health”. Results: More medical students (48.6%) reported being frequently stressed due to studies than CASCS students (38.7%, P &lt;0.01). Unsuitable teaching methods, an unsatisfactory study environment, and fear of failure in examinations were more frequently mentioned by medical than non-medical students (P &lt;0.05). While underlying social problems were significantly more common in medical students, economic problems were more prevalent among CASCS students (P &lt;0.05, P &lt;0.05). More medical than non-medical students reported a worse status of physical and mental health, anxiety and depression and negative life-style changes since initiation of the college programme. Conclusion: Medical students were at higher risk of physical and mental health problems than non-medical students due to academic stress. Since a substantial proportion of CASCS students also experienced academic stress, we recommend that a student support committee be established for both colleges to provide counselling and guidance in healthy ways to cope with stress

Indah Laundry / Ezrin Mohamad...[et al.]

According to this title, we have chosen to provide laundry services. Therefore, we have named our business as lndah Laundry. Our business initial cash capital RM 122,500 contributed by all business partners and one from our partners contributed fixed capital (computer) amounted RM2500. We also chose a strategic location at Taman lndah Permai. The nature of the business will be expended is the business have good perfonnance

Promoting cross-regional collaboration in antimicrobial stewardship: Findings of an infectious diseases working group survey in Arab countries of the Middle East.

Abstract Background Antimicrobial resistance is a significant global issue that presents an increasing threat to patients' wellbeing. Although a global concern, the emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms is of particular significance in the Middle East. In recent years, this region has seen an alarming increase in antimicrobial resistance presenting a major challenge to physicians managing various infectious diseases. Methods A Working Group comprising experts in infectious diseases from Arab countries of Middle East assembled to review similarities and differences in antimicrobial practices and management of multi-drug resistant organisms across the region and assess the barriers to achieving cross-regional collaboration. The Working Group conducted an anonymous online survey to evaluate current practice and understanding of management of multi-drug resistant organisms across the region. Results A total of 122 physicians from Arab countries of the Middle East responded to the survey. Their responses demonstrated heterogeneity between countries in awareness of local epidemiology, management of multi-drug resistant organisms and antimicrobial stewardship practices. The Working Group recognized similarities and differences in the management of multi-drug resistant organisms across the region, and these were validated by the data collected in the survey. Overall, the similarities across the region reflect several key issues that can have an impact on the management of multi-drug resistant organisms and the prevention of antimicrobial resistance. Conclusions This paper highlights the urgency of addressing antimicrobial resistance in Arab countries of the Middle East. The Working Group identified key barriers to effective management which may guide the development of future coherent strategies to promote effective antimicrobial stewardship in the region. Here, we outline a call to action for the region, with a need to focus on training and education, capacity building, infrastructure, regional research, and regional surveillance

Unveiling the dynamics of antimicrobial utilization and resistance in a large hospital network over five years: Insights from health record data analysis

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) presents a pressing public health challenge globally which has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Elucidation of the impact of the pandemic on AMR evolution using population-level data that integrates clinical, laboratory and prescription data remains lacking. Data was extracted from the centralized electronic platform which captures the health records of 60,551 patients with a confirmed infection across the network of public healthcare facilities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For all inpatients and outpatients diagnosed with bacterial infection between 01/01/2017 and 31/05/2022, structured and unstructured Electronic Health Record data, microbiological laboratory data including antibiogram, molecular typing and COVID-19 testing information as well as antibiotic prescribing data were extracted curated and linked. Various analytical methods, including time-series analysis, natural language processing (NLP) and unsupervised clustering algorithms, were employed to investigate the trends of antimicrobial usage and resistance over time, assess the impact of prescription practices on resistance rates, and explore the effects of COVID-19 on antimicrobial usage and resistance. Our findings identified a significant impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial prescription practices, with short-term and long-lasting over-prescription of these drugs. Resistance to antimicrobials increased the odds ratio of all mortality to an average of 2.18 (95% CI: 1.87–2.49) for the most commonly prescribed antimicrobials. Moreover, the effects of antimicrobial prescription practices on resistance were observed within one week of initiation. Significant trends in antimicrobial resistance, exhibiting fluctuations for various drugs and organisms, with an overall increasing trend in resistance levels, particularly post-COVID-19 were identified. This study provides a population-level insight into the evolution of AMR in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The findings emphasize the impact of COVID-19 on the AMR crisis, which remained evident even two years after the onset of the pandemic. This underscores the necessity for enhanced antimicrobial stewardship to address the evolution of AMR

Use of Smart Mobile and Web Application Kobotoolbox/ Kobocollect for Community Health Diagnosis: Sharing Experience from the Remote Area of Nepal

Community Health Diagnosis (CHD) is part of teaching-learning activities at medical and public health schools to recognize the health-related issues in the community, identify social and other problems in depth, and find solutions by shaking hands with community people. Every year, the household survey is conducted by medical, nursing, and public health students as a part of CHD. Our experiences revealed that the student faces several challenges while using paper-based data collection and management during CHD. To overcome such challenges, we used a web-based and smart mobile application called KoboToolbox/KoboCollect to conduct household surveys in CHD in remote areas of Nepal for the first time. Our experience suggests that mobile-based Applications can be used conveniently in CHD which saves time and money for students as well as for schools and can conserve the environment trees. Those students who are not familiar with smart technology need to be trained before using this app